Runs country engagements from qualification through financeable requests, maintains pipeline and milestone schedules, prepares funder reporting, and coordinates government delegations and technical exchanges. Develops country dossiers, concept notes, and proposals; manages in-country consultants; and writes decision briefs for government and funder audiences. The role requires international development, digital government, or programme management experience, technical literacy in digital public infrastructure and data systems, and substantial work with governments outside India.
Position: Senior Manager, ICDIA Programme
Team: AI and Digital Transformation
Level and grade: L5 Senior Manager
Position type: Full time, permanent
Location: Delhi, India. Hybrid.
Reports to: Team Lead, ICDIA Programme
Travel: 30 percent, domestic and international
About Us
APLYD helps governments, multilateral institutions, development finance institutions and foundations use AI in public systems. Most public-sector AI stops at the pilot. Our work is getting it into everyday service delivery and keeping it running once we leave.
Athena Infonomics has done this work for years. In 2026 we set it up as its own company. We cover strategy and readiness, field data and last-mile reach, design and build, evaluation and audit, and scale and production.
440+ engagements · 240+ global clients · 85+ specialists · 7 countries · 5 continents
The Role
You run the engagement day to day so that the Team Lead can hold the client relationship and the domain. You own the country engagements through the qualification process, you keep the milestone schedule honest, and you are the person the partner governments and the domestic ecosystem deal with between senior meetings.
Core Job Responsibilities
- Run country engagements through the qualification process: from expression of interest, through diagnosis, to a specific and financeable request. Apply the same standard of assessment to every country.
- Keep the pipeline record accurate. Where each country stands, what it is waiting on, and what has stalled. Run the monthly demand review.
- Own the milestone schedule in practice: what is due, what is at risk, and what needs a decision from the Team Lead. Prepare the funder reporting.
- Prepare and run delegations, study tours and technical exchanges end to end, and coordinate the domestic response across ministries and platform owners so the ask reaches the right counterpart.
- Draft the country dossiers, concept notes and project proposals, working with the Research and Knowledge Exchange lead on the analysis and the DPI lead on feasibility.
- Mobilise and manage in-country consultants on assignment, and hold them to the commissioning standard.
- Write the briefs that senior decision-makers act on, in the register the audience needs.
Qualifications and Competencies
- Six or more years in international development, digital government or programme management, including work with governments outside India.
- You have run a structured process at volume, applying the same standard across many cases, rather than handling opportunities one at a time.
- You have managed a donor-funded programme's reporting against milestones.
- You know how public systems and large development institutions work: how decisions get made, how procurement runs, and where budgets sit.
- Enough technical literacy to hold a conversation about digital public infrastructure, feasibility and data systems without misrepresenting them.
- You write clearly and quickly, for both government and funder audiences.
- Based in Delhi, with willingness to travel 30 percent.
Also useful, though we will not screen on it
- Prior work on South-South cooperation, bilateral partnerships or multilateral initiatives.
- Country diagnostic or readiness assessment work in low- and middle-income contexts.
- French, Spanish or Portuguese.
- Experience commissioning and quality-assuring external experts.
Additional Requirements
- This position requires successful completion of a reference check and employment verification.
- The successful candidate must not be subject to employment restrictions from a former employer, such as a non-compete, that would prevent performance of the responsibilities described.
- Candidates must declare any current or recent engagement with a government, multilateral or development finance institution that could present a conflict of interest.
APLYD’s Work Culture
At APLYD, we function in an outcomes-based work environment with flexible hours and a high level of autonomy. Professional development and thought leadership are key elements of our business model: we support our team members’ professional growth through on-the-job training, and we encourage the cultivation of our colleagues’ personal brands through participation in panels, events, publications, and other thought-leadership opportunities. We embrace a transparent, open work environment with meaningful leadership pathways for those with inventive ideas and initiatives.
APLYD is an Equal Opportunities Employer
APLYD, part of the Athena Infonomics group, is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, or disability status.
AI Proficiency and Responsible Use
Proficiency in the responsible and sophisticated use of AI is a mandatory requirement for all roles, across all levels and functions at APLYD and Athena Infonomics.
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